CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Mason County woman is heading into the month of March with an additional $300,000 that she won with a lottery ticket that was almost tossed into the trash.
Lacey Varian, 21, of Mason, was in Charleston Tuesday to claim her prize from the second chance drawing for the West Virginia Lottery’s “Happy Birthday” ticket, celebrating the Lottery’s 30th year.
It was Varian who stopped her mother from throwing out the scratch off tickets that were not winners initially.
“I’m very thankful that I saw them before she put them there,” Varian told MetroNews on Tuesday soon after she received her big check.
As part of a Lottery anniversary promotion, any of the non-winning “Happy Birthday” tickets, which are sold for $30, can be entered into the second chance drawing through the mail or online, which was the way Varian submitted her tickets.
The aspiring social worker was the top winner in the first round of drawings for those second chance tickets and said she had a lot of plans for the money.
“I want to pay off my debt and go to school, buy a house and get a new car and set myself up and then, the rest, I’m going to donate some,” she said. “Then I’m going to just kind of help out my family a little bit because they’ve helped me so much.”
Winners of $30,000 from the first round drawings were Ronnie White from Coal City and Tammy Anderson from Charleston. There were 10 winners of $3,000 each.
Similar prizes will be awarded on Apr. 20 for entries mailed in by Apr. 6 or submitted online by Apr. 18.
The last round of second round “Happy Birthday” tickets are due on June 8 by mail or June 20 online for a drawing on June 22 when someone will win $1,000,000.